Cyprus Intelligence Service
The Central Intelligence Service is the intelligence-gathering body of Cyprus; it was reorganised and given official status by a 14 April 2016 parliamentary bill. The CIS was initially founded in 1970 by then-President Archbishop Makarios.[1] The new Independent Authority will be renamed "Cyprus Intelligence Service" (CIS) and will be responsible for internal and external national security, i.e a Cypriot combination of MI5 and MI6.
The President of the Republic of Cyprus Mr Nicos Anastasiades is expected to appoint the Commander of the new CIS and the two Sub commanders under the new legislation which has to be published in the Official Journal in order to come into force under Article 52 of the Cyprus Constitution of 1960. The new law N. 75(I) of 2016 was published in the official journal on May 4 2016 and entered into force immediately. The new era for the CIS has began.
Before the entry into force of the new law, the Political Director was Ambassador Kyriakos Kouros and the Director was Marios Christofides who is a superior police officer. The rest of the Cypriot agents were either police officers or members of the Cyprus national guard placed in the CIS Headquarters in Ayios Andreas in Nicosia.
Under the new law the CIS will be able to acquire its own employees either as permanent members of the Intelligence Services or under contract and even be able to buy services from the private sector. Its budget will be confidential and under the control of the new Commander or Director of the Service.
The new CIS Law contains 35 Articles.
References
- ↑ Anastasiou, Angelos (April 15, 2016). "After 46 years, intelligence service gets legal stature". Cyprus Mail. Retrieved 29 April 2016.